Thursday, August 6, 2009

My parents are pretty active people. All my life I can remember them jogging, swimming, bike-riding, dancing in contests. I remember my mother jogging around the local high school since it had a large parking lot which surrounded the entire building. Tons of trees, a soccer field, a baseball field, and a softball field made it a pretty nice location to do anything. I remember we spent a lot of time around there as kids. An endless supply of bugs, some snakes, and the occasional dollar bill stuck to the perimeter fence among dried leaves made it a gold mind. I found a twenty dollar bill once. That was like finding a thousand bucks.

My mother would go jogging at night sometimes. It made her feel safer if my brother and I would ride our bikes around with her. Jack the Ripper hates nine year old kids I guess. I remember one night in particular. It was really moist and foggy and my mother decided to extend the laps and jog around the grade school which was about a block away (connected by more parking lots). As we came around the bend on one side of the grade school, we saw a man standing alone in the field next to the school. He was facing us, motionless. We all kept our cool, but it was really unnerving. I'm thinking my mother was telling herself that her sons would keep her safe and we were thinking our mother would keep us safe. As she jogged around the building, we lost sight of him. As we came around the other side of the school, the guy was ON THAT SIDE OF THE FIELD facing us. It was a pretty good distance so he had to have moved very quickly the moment we passed out of his view. But there he was, facing us. Closer than before. The night was so quiet and my mother's sneakers hitting the blacktop were making soft tapping sounds. Man, we were scared. I think my mother said something like "Just keep moving....just keep moving..." He just stood there. Watching us as we got further and further away.

When we lost sight of him back at the high school, my mother suddenly yells "HERE HE COMES!" I remember shooting off like a squid in the water. Pedaling so damn fast. My brother too. Crazy fast. My mother lost in the dust and fog, and laughing. She was joking with her terrified sons.This is TOTALLY what he looked like.